Our Opinion: Empower high schoolers to save lives

Sudden cardiac arrest can strike anyone. That's more support for why a new law that requires high school students to be trained in CPR and AED use makes sense.

By The Editorial BoardThe State Journal-Register

Sudden cardiac arrest can strike anyone at any time, and high schools certainly aren't off limits to the possibility.

That's more support for why a new Illinois law that requires high school students to be trained in CPR and AED use makes sense.

State Journal-Register readers on Sunday learned about PORTA High School's Nick Atterberry and a terrifying ordeal he, his family, coaches and teammates experienced this summer. On June 7, while playing with PORTA's basketball team in Monmouth College's Summer Shootout, the 17-year-old athlete's heart stopped working and he collapsed.

Fast-acting coaches and parents rushed to help, performing CPR, calling 911 and retrieving an automated external defibrillator, or AED, which was used to detect Atterberry's heart rhythm and provide instructions about whether any shocks were needed. Atterberry received one shock, and after what surely seemed like an eternity to those helping and worriedly watching, he regained consciousness.

Atterberry experienced ventricular fibrillation, or an irregular heartbeat that occurs when the heart's electrical activity is disturbed, causing it to quiver rather than beat regularly. Doctors still aren't sure what caused it. The long-time athlete had no prior history of heart problems.

He's fine now, though he probably won't play football or basketball his senior year. He has a surgically implanted defibrillator that would shock his heart if it goes into ventricular fibrillation again.

Atterberry lived to tell the tale because of the critical, life-saving help bystanders administered right away.

“His chances were nil if not for the response there was to help him,” said Dr. Cecilia Albaro, a pediatric cardiologist at Children's Hospital of Illinois at OSF Saint Francis Medical Center in Peoria, said. “With kids who have sudden cardiac events, there's a whole range of what the outcomes can be.”

Gov. Pat Quinn signed a law June 5 that requires all secondary schools to train students on how to properly administer CPR and how to use an AED, beginning with the upcoming school year. Students may opt out of the training if their parents submit a written objection.

The law was sponsored by two Democratic Chicago legislators, Rep. Daniel Burke and Sen. John Mulroe. Two other incidents, not unlike Atterberry's, prompted them to push for the change.

In 2008, St. Charles High School senior Lauren Laman collapsed and died during drill team practice at her school. An AED was available at the school but was not used until paramedics arrived after being dispatched by 911.

And in January of this year, 17-year-old Harry Bell performed CPR on his father at their home for 12 minutes after the man's heart stopped because of artery blockage. Bell learned CPR during a freshman health class at Fenwick High School in Oak Park.

Some schools balked at the requirement, calling it another unfunded mandate thrust upon them by the state. Cost concerns are valid in an era when schools are watching every dime because of the state's budget crisis.

But our hope is that heart-health organizations, health-care providers, paramedics, firefighters and other appropriately trained individuals statewide will see the value of such training and volunteer their time to help make it happen.

Consider these statistics from the American Heart Association and other experts:

* More than 300,000 Americans experience sudden cardiac arrest every year. About 80 percent occur outside of a hospital.

* The chances of surviving a sudden cardiac arrest more than doubles when CPR is started early. Yet bystanders initiate CPR in less than 30 percent of all sudden cardiac arrest situations, commonly because they never received CPR training.

* According to a 2012 estimate by the American Academy of Pediatrics, 2,000 people under 25 die from sudden cardiac arrest in the United States every year. The risk of sudden cardiac arrest is three times greater in competitive athletes.

The new law presents an opportunity to train generations of young people and empower them to save lives when called to do so. The benefits far outweigh the costs.